tasty bits for your iPhone

Evolution

As I mentioned when we released Voices last month, tap tap tap has undergone a bunch of changes and additions. First off, and most significantly, I’d like to announce that Scott’s and my MacHeist partner, co-creator of Classics, one of my best friends, and my arch-nemesis, Phill Ryu, has become one of the principals here. In addition, Scott himself, who’s been part of tap tap tap since our inception, has taken on a broader role and more responsibility in the company.

Why? Since starting tap tap tap, the business has always taken a back seat to MacHeist, which is our main business. But with the recent success of Convert, I felt that we were onto something big… much bigger than I ever envisioned when we launched the company when the App Store first opened.

I’ll admit that I had visions of tap tap tap taking the place of MacHeist as my primary business after we got things off the ground. Once Apple made the iPhone SDK available to us and we launched our initial apps, with everything exceeding my expectations, it was hard to not think this way. As much as I dislike coding nowadays, I love coming up with app ideas, helping shape their direction, all things UI in general, and the dirty ’M’ word (marketing). But I also love everything about MacHeist and by the time MacHeist 3 rolled around at the start of the year, tap tap tap effectively got put on hiatus.

Up until recently, I’d been the primary decision-maker here and basically had been overseeing every minute detail of everything we’ve been creating. But I realized that if I wanted tap tap tap to really grow and not be “this other thing that I do on the side of MacHeist”, I had to let go a bit and put my trust into other capable hands. Since I’ve been working very closely with Phill and Scott for several years now, and we’ve done some great things together, it was a natural choice to have them be the ones to lead tap tap tap along with me now.

Voices has been the first project that we’ve been working on together as equals and it’s been an unbelievable success. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” is undoubtedly a saying that applies to this change. Stay tuned for Phill’s upcoming post with the first month’s sales for Voices and you’ll see what I mean (I’ll follow-up soon after with the most recent numbers for Convert, too).

So now I’m free to not have to micromanage everything and it’s a huge relief. This is the second major change to happen since the company was formed and each change has been an overwhelmingly positive one. Phill and Scott have proven track records I have complete faith that they’ll always get the job done and that they’re adding a lot to tap tap tap. As a result, we’ve managed to ramp things up considerably. I’m positive that you’re going to love all the apps that we have in the works.

Staff updates

With all the new development we have going on, we’ve added a bunch of new people to our roster. I’m very proud of the team we’ve assembled and I feel that we’re working with some of the most talented people on the planet. Remember that talent isn’t measured in Twitter popularity and blogging output, but rather in what people actually accomplish in the work they do and I think you’ll understand what I mean. One of the things I appreciate most about the people we work with is the absolute lack of ego on their parts.

Instead of redundantly listing every new member here, I’ll simply refer you to our freshly updated about page. You’ll likely notice a lot of similarities between this about page and the MacHeist one. It’s no coincidence, and it’s become hard to tell where one company ends and the other begins. This is a good thing.

We’ve seen the future, and it’s HTML… flour… CSS… eggs… JavaScript… and sugar

Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz behind PastryKits and Pie Guys and such. So, in addition to announcing new people and projects, I’d also like to announce that we’re switching over from developing native iPhone apps to web apps.

Yes, I couldn’t be more kidding.

The people that actually think this could be the future of iPhone development are basically delusional. They think and hope that web apps will somehow magically replace the App Store but there’s no way in hell that it’ll ever happen. A lot of this stems from all the publicity that some app rejections have gotten by the media, and a childish, “Ima take my ball and go home” attitude. But in reality, these rejections are by far the exception, rather than the rule…

For what it’s worth, we’ve submitted many, many updates of our apps to the App Store and never once got rejected. And we’ve been known to sneak in the occasional private API use here and there. A little common sense goes a long way. What’s unfortunate is that some developers have actually come to hope for rejection because they know that it’s a sure-fire way to get some publicity. Both the developers and the media are to blame, in my opinion.

2010 and beyond

As I mentioned, we have a ton of new projects in the works. And some major updates for our existing apps are in progress. 2009 was an amazing year for us and we’re expecting 2010 to be even bigger and better. I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone here and I so often feel like I’m the most fortunate person alive to have not the best job in the world, but the two best jobs in the world.

tap tap tap is a leading iPhone and iPad app developer and publisher.

We’ve been creating top-notch apps since the App Store first opened. Our apps are used by literally tens of millions of people in all corners of the world. A few of our favorite and most popular apps we’ve created are:

Haha, love the “web app” comments. But, even though I do agree with you that web apps will never, ever, EVAH, replace the App Store, web apps for the iPhone are still greatly underestimated. Sure, you can’t use the API’s and such but what you can use is CSS Transitions and Transforamtions etc which in fact, are pretty rad.

You’re mentioning my little project (Pie Guy) in the same breath with the straw-man depiction of web app developers as jilted, attention-seeking drama queens. I take offense to this.

You’re completely making up the story about developers thinking web apps are the future of iPhone development. Who has said this?

I don’t know why you’re being so aggressive and nasty about a technology which all app developers would be well advised to learn more about, even in the context of native apps. (What, you don’t plan on ever using a webview in a native app? Good luck formatting text.)